D.C.’s Mayor Confronts Reid on Capitol Steps

WASHINGTON – District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray on Wednesday burst into a press conference organized by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) on the Senate steps to ask for Congress to allow the city to use its own funds to ensure that essential city services continue despite a federal government shutdown.

But his efforts were to no avail, leaving the overwhelmingly Democratic city with little hope for a quick fix from the Senate’s top Democrat. During the press conference, Mr. Reid said that the Republicans were the ones preventing the city from being able to spend its own funds, even though House Republicans have passed a bill to allow D.C. to be able to spend its own funds during a partial government shutdown. After the press conference, Mr. Reid could be heard telling the mayor “I’m on your side – don’t screw it up.” (NBC has posted video of the remarks.)

Later Wednesday, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D., D.C.) carried the fight to the White House, where her exchange with U.S. President Barack Obama was the most dramatic moment of a closed-door meeting with Mr. Obama and House Democrats, according to lawmakers at the meeting. Ms. Norton didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Ms. Norton, who doesn’t get a vote in Congress, made a passionate case for carving out Washington, D.C., from the shutdown impasse, lawmakers said. Unlike states, which are free to spend their own tax revenues during a government shutdown, the District of Columbia cannot spend its own tax revenues during the shutdown because of a law that requires Congress to first approve the city’s budget. That approval usually comes during the routine appropriations process, which the shutdown upended.

Mr. Obama’s response gave the city no more hope than Mr. Reid’s had earlier. Mr. Obama was sympathetic, lawmakers said, but backed up Mr. Reid’s strategy of insisting that government shutdown issues be dealt with simultaneously, instead of piece by piece. Ms. Holmes-Norton pressed her case, lawmakers said, creating tension in the room.

A White House spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The mayor’s confrontation with the Senate’s top Democrat was serendipitous, starting after Senate Democrats had scheduled an outdoor press conference not far from where the D.C. representatives had set up their own press conference. At that event, Mr. Gray said that the District was quickly exempted from the last shutdown, and a similar move should be made this time.

U.S. Capitol Police had tried to bar the mayor from leaving his own press conference, which had just concluded, and walking to the Senate Democratic press conference on the East steps of the Senate. But Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer, a onetime D.C. police officer, intervened and had to allow Mr. Gray proceed, because under the Senate rules the D.C. mayor has Senate floor privileges, according to a spokesman for the mayor’s office.

Mr. Gray marched ahead, telling a reporter he was “absolutely” going to ask that the city be able to spend its own money to keep operating. As Senate Democrats tried to stay on message, Mr. Gray waited patiently next to Mr. Reid, with the crowd from his press conference chanting “Free D.C. “ in the background loudly enough to almost drown out the Senate Democratic press event.

The first question for Mr. Reid at the press conference was about the D.C. budget, from a reporter. “Don’t talk to us – talk to the Republicans,” Mr. Reid said.

Democrats have resisted efforts by Republicans to fund parts of government piecemeal, including a bill to allow D.C. to operate normally, saying instead that the GOP should just pass a clean budget bill. But under the 1973 Home Rule Act, which created the city’s elected government, Congress must approve the district’s budget each year as part of the appropriations process before it can spend any of its local funds.

The city’s budget has been caught up in that tangle, with the House voting to allow the city to spend its own money but Senate Democrats refusing to follow suit in order to stick to a broader principle: that all federal budget issues should be dealt with simultaneously.

Mr. Gray, who leads this overwhelmingly Democratic city, buttonholed the Senate Democratic leader as the press conference ended — which is when Mr. Reid made his “don’t screw it up” comment. With Ms. Norton standing nearby, Mr. Gray reacted angrily, telling reporters “I have no idea” what Mr. Reid meant.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) tried to soothe hurt feelings, saying that “we’ve got to open up this government for all the people; in D.C., Virginia,” but Mr. Gray’s blood started to boil.

“We’re not a department of the government,” Mr. Gray replied.

“All we’re asking for is to spend our own money. We’re just asking to spend our own money. Our own money. Not the federal money. Our own money.”

Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for the mayor, said that D.C. was already starting to feel the strains in a way that states aren’t. The federal government contributes 70% of funds for Medicaid, for example, and such mandatory programs are exempt from the federal shutdown. The money gets deposited into state and local funds, but D.C. cannot access its federal matching funds because Congress has not approved the city’s budget, Mr. Ribeiro said. He said the result is that clinics and doctors don’t get paid.

“You’ve got patients who aren’t going to receive treatment; you have folks in long-term care whose providers aren’t going to be compensated who can’t make payroll,” Mr. Ribeiro said.

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